Two Poems by Seth Jani

Doors

In my dreams there’s always

A filmy wall

Giving way to secrets.

It might be a portal,

Or a game, or even the

Unconscious Hades of my own mind

Trying to pierce the thin veil

Of waking.

Either way it’s a theme

Over which my mind obsesses.

Night after night, doors and orifices

Opening in the facilities of logic,

Always followed by a feeling

Of something ancient.

As though a portal to the middle ages

Suddenly opened on Third and Pike:

Cavalries and queens pouring out

Amongst the sluggish traffic,

Blood-hungry superstitions floating down

Onto the cold verandahs,

The fierce god of cathedrals

Claiming his place

Amongst the neon valleys of the city

While the swordless citizens

Run away in awe.

Sundials

Lord, what it is to feel here

Amongst the loneliness of sundials,

Amongst the cryptic lights

Of galaxies, amongst the avenues

Of strangers, and the pigeons

Near the bay.

Let me touch the edge of some

Giant painting; in which the ocean,

In which the vast turbulent cities,

In which all the pain inside

Our bodies, weld together into blue.

Let me feel in the clandestine gardens,

In the sadness filled by clocks,

The one great loneliness

That eventually gives over

To the firebrands of love.

Seth Jani is the founder of Seven CirclePress (www.sevencirclepress.com) and his own poems have appeared throughout the small press in places like The Foundling Review, Red River Review and Gutter Eloquence. More about him and his work can be found at www.sethjani.com.